Young girls open to STEM careers, report finds

Most young girls in Ireland are willing to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and maths – but many do not see these subjects as being relevant to their lives, according to new research.

A recent poll of 1,000 girls aged between 11 and 18 conducted on behalf of Microsoft found that 54 per cent can imagine themselves pursuing a career in the so-called STEM disciplines.

While most survey respondents disagreed with the perception that boys have more of a natural aptitude for STEM subjects, nearly a third did not recognise how they are relevant to everyday life.

The research comes ahead of the global “Hour of Code” campaign being championed by Microsoft, which is encouraging schools of all levels to devote more lesson time to coding.

Over recent decades Ireland has struggled to recruit women into science and technology jobs created by multinationals, many of which choose to base their European headquarters in the State.

The country is not alone in this trend, but Microsoft Ireland's managing director Cathriona Hallahan says more needs to be done in order to ensure that job vacancies in the area are filled by women in future.

"We need to encourage more young girls to sustain their initial interest in science and technology, and to build capabilities in computational thinking," she said following a coding tutorial at the company's headquarters in Sandyford.

Opportunities

She continued: “It’s our responsibility to engage with girls at a primary school age and continue to deliver the message to them around the opportunities a career in STEM disciplines can offer.

“The introduction of coding into the secondary school curriculum in 2019 is a step in the right direction. However, we now need to begin to look at how we engage earlier at a primary level and with more regularity.”

Microsoft is encouraging schools to take part in a “global hour of code’ between December 5th-11th, and will be offering free tutorials through Skype to all interested schools next Wednesday morning.

Sixth class pupils from the nearby St Olaf's National School were invited to Microsoft for their own coding masterclass on Friday, and their teacher Brian Kavanagh said the subject remains "peripheral" on the current primary curriculum.

“You do have to look down the line and if you’re not computer literate or able to have these skills it does narrow down your options in the future,” he said.

“I don’t do much coding but it is interesting,” said 11 year-old Gagik Avetisyan, who was busy searching for solutions to coding problems alongside his friend Mark O’Brien (10).

"My dad works in IBM, he's starting to teach me a little bit of code. Even Mark's going to teach me a little bit, and it would be a good thing to continue after primary school," he added.